At Venly, our mission is simple: to empower the next generation of businesses and developers to access Web3 by lowering the barriers to entry. Over the past year, we have reached a number of milestones that have brought us closer to our vision of making blockchain technology accessible to everyone. As the holiday season approaches, it’s a great time to reflect on the past twelve months and celebrate some of our 2022 milestones. 

Month-by-month Growth

Back in February, we kicked the year off with the launch of the Venly MetaRing, a tool that transports owners to the center of the metaverse and unlocks access to exclusive locations and next-level experiences. To support the launch of MetaRing, we announced a host of partnerships with industry giants such as Polygon and The Sandbox, bringing tangible utility to the masses in the metaverse. While it was one of our first major announcements of the year, our team continued working behind the scened on the MetaRing. As a result, we will be revealing a host of exciting new features over the course of 2023.

Our vision to help bridge the gap between Web2 and Web3 began materializing with a key partnership that we announced in March - ImmutableX. Through this partnership, ImmutableX leveraged Venly’s wallet and marketplace integrations to allow users to sign into ImmutableX platforms via social media, trade NFTs on Shopify, and trade NFTs on the Venly marketplace.

In the spring of 2022, the future of Venly began to take shape with the monumental news of our successful €21 million Series A funding round. This raise served to underpin the value of Venly’s vision to bring blockchain technology to the mainstream, and it also helped facilitate our product pipeline scheduled for release over the subsequent months and into 2023. In addition, this funding allowed us to continue adding to our incredibly talented team, which has tripled in headcount over recent months. 

In May, Venly NFT Marketplace launched VENS, our internal token, to reward and incentivize users on the marketplace. With the goal of creating a positive user experience, VENS encourages active participation in the marketplace while rewarding users along the way. Alongside the launch of the token, we also improved UX, added utility, and launched Avalanche support, all in an effort to create a seamless solution for users.

Our mission over the course of our growth has been to make Web3 accessible by providing a suite of no-code solutions. Our partnership with WowYow in June, a leader in computer vision AI, consisted of an innovative Web3 Distribution Kit that enabled content creators across all categories to enter into NFT and metaverse markets across multiple blockchains easily. 

In September, our CEO, Tim, was nominated by Blockchain Magazine as one of the top Web3 entrepreneurs to follow in the space, which serves as a testament not only to Tim’s valuable thought leadership in the space but also to the importance of Venly’s wider mission. We’re so proud of you Tim! 

The following month was an exceptionally exciting time for Venly, kicking off with our second place award in Emerce EDAY’s Top Ten European Startups, followed by our Deloitte Rising Star award win, and rounded off by an incredible all-team off-site in Mallorca. This trip was invaluable for team bonding, collaboration, and innovation; particularly given that we work in a remote-first setting.

The quality of our tight-knit company culture has had a direct impact on the success of our operations. Thanks to our top-notch team, we reached another major milestone - the launch of our Shopify NFT app on both Avalanche and Polygon. This development serves to further support traditional ecommerce by providing store owners on Shopify with the means to step into Web3 by configuring, minting, and selling NFTs through the Venly app.

This year has been one for the books at Venly, with some incredible advances in our mission of onboarding the mainstream to Web3. In December, Venly announced a partnership with industry giant Stripe, which allows purchases to be made with Venly Wallet via Stripe’s fiat-to-crypto onramp. This integration has been a major milestone for Venly, realizing our efforts following our Series A funding round earlier in the year. 

On the very same day, Venly was awarded runner-up for the Blockchain Trailblazer Award, a prestigious category within the Tech Trailblazers Awards, a global program that recognizes technological and commercial innovation and entrepreneurial excellence. This recognition reiterates that our company remains bullish on blockchain, even amidst the turbulent Web3 landscape at present.

Looking to 2023

It’s been a big year for Venly and we’re not finished yet, we’re in the middle of our last campaign of the year: a Christmas NFT Giveaway. 2023 is shaping up to be our most ambitious yet. As we enter our fifth year in the space, we are excited to launch new tools, partnerships, and initiatives to double down on our mission. To stay up to speed on future updates, be sure to connect with us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Discord, and Email.